Accelerated Recovery

Scenario planning is a versatile and powerful technique enabling organisations to imagine different versions of what the world and our business environment may look like. Its value lies in providing guidance to adapting and optimising strategy and in turn increasing resilience and agility. Key steps include: -

- Conduct a full scenario planning session to create several vivid, plausible alternate views of the future
- Identify what it takes to be highly successful in each future
- Develop effort priorities that maximise success regardless of scenario version and develop scenario specific action plans
- Identify warning signs that would indicate the world is shifting more towards one scenario than another and adjust plans and actions accordingly

Skarbek contribute experience and expert thinking from our senior advisors from government, military and business and can manage the whole process for you to final outputs for internal communication

- In a recession, one of the biggest challenges is to focus the limited resources in any organisation on the things that matter most. The strategy may need adjustment following scenario planning, for example, with consequent re-alignment

- To accelerate a recovery from a recession, it is anything but business as usual. There may be a need to reprioritise activities that will generate cash in the short term versus longer term initiatives. Radical review of the total portfolio and re-prioritisation is crucial

- Having validated strategic clarity, we work to cascade the strategy and gain engagement at all levels. Rigorously prioritising against impact, timing and certainty of delivery

- Skarbek have well-proven, simple techniques to support a leadership team quickly through well-orchestrated alignment and prioritisation events, even in a virtual setting

- Will our revised plans work? Are the assumptions realistic?

- Red teaming is a technique used by military and intelligence agencies that involves subjecting plans to objective criticism. Taking its inspiration from the Devil’s Advocate – an independent figure charged to challenge the case for an individual to be made a saint. In business, the intent of red teaming is to use an independent team, often including an external component to increase the quality of plans, to validate or challenge under-pinning assumptions

- Skarbek offer clients red team event organisation and facilitation, including red team players to conduct red team challenges on project, or strategies and business plans

- Integrated planning is a methodological approach to creating high quality plans where different teams, or individuals (functional, geographic), need to collaborate closely to achieve the desired outcomes. Skarbek have now created a means to conduct Virtual Integrated Planning sessions achieving many of the effects we create in person

- We offer our custom virtual rooms providing the opportunity to bring remote team members together, prior to them embarking on a key project, or initiative

- Skarbek’s facilitation optimises the human dynamic, creating a shared consciousness, building trust and confidence to deliver

- Track cashflow and bank balance on a weekly and monthly basis

- Update cashflow projections regularly

- Maintain a focus on revenue generation opportunities

- Consider the business structure and cost base strategically – location changes, office / manufacturing / R&D footprint adjustments to reduce cost base

- Brands, divisions and projects may have fallen into the zone of mediocrity, or be failing entirely. In an economic crisis, robust turnaround plans need to be defined

- Skarbek Associates can conduct a situational analysis, designing and implementing effective turnaround strategies

- To emerge from the crisis with weak processes and ways of working improved confers competitive advantage

- Identify the “unfit” processes, ways of working and issues. Nominate one or more priority activities to evolve. Map key processes ‘as is’ and ‘target future state’

- Engage in a fit for recovery ‘virtual bootcamp’ to enhance key capabilities and fix weak ones

- Skarbek provide a range of programmes to develop knowledge and skills related to strategy implementation including high performance teamwork, programme and project management

- If you have conducted scenario planning, this will assist setting the right goals

- Define a compelling vision of the future with a clear aim. Be honest about what are ‘known knowns’, ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’ and be clear about the distinction between them

- Set clear ambitious goals in short time frames

- Skarbek can help organisations rapidly adapt strategy and harness the energy of the whole organisation behind your firm’s effort priorities

- Initiate Autonomous Accelerated Recovery Teams (AARTs) led by your best people. These should be aligned to strategic short-term objectives and provided with increased empowerment and autonomy to move fast

- Create a small, longer-term, planning cell to feed in the next set of objectives

- Skarbek can provide expert project managers to organise, plan and lead AARTs, or to supplement or backfill key resource needs

- Identify revenue generating quick wins and pursue as rapidly as environment permits

- Communicate progress and achievements on quick wins to boost morale

- Skarbek can help in organising, mobilising, planning and delivery of projects with increased certainty, even through uncertain times

- Learn from mistakes quickly and engage with what is working well to accelerate momentum. Designate knowledge champions to conduct regular small team knowledge learning sharing sessions to spread good ideas and successes

- Harvest insights and learnings in rapid AAR events, which can be conducted virtually in one of our specially designed virtual rooms

- Appoint an overall knowledge champion to codify learnings and the journey – this won’t be the last pandemic, recession, or business crisis

- The operating rhythm can be driven by a drumbeat of meetings

- Short, sharp, well organised meetings on a more frequent basis can increase the tempo of actions and activity, providing they are properly focused

- The OODA loop attributed to John Boyd can be very helpful in developing and maintaining a fast pace

- Boyd suggested that each of our decisions and the process we use to make them run in a recurring cycle of observe-orient-decide-act. An individual or team that was capable of operating this cycle quickly was able to “get inside” another’s cycle, thus gaining a strategic advantage